The GasTOPS case took seven years until it was completed.  There were 295 days of evidence spread over 3 years, with 70,000 pages of exhibits and 3,000 pages of written submissions.  It took the Court two years to produce the trial reasons, which were 668 pages in length.  The Court of Appeal heard the appeal in the matter over a period of four days and issued a 32 page decision.  One aspect of breach of fiduciary duty cases is that they can be very expensive and time consuming, regardless of who eventually wins.

The Trial Court had held that the four defendants were the designers of the core program of the GasTOPs products.  They were part of the senior management.  They all left to start up a new competing business together and took additional employees with them.  They then pursued “virtually every existing and potential GasTOPS’ customer, used the confidential information that they had obtained while at GasTOPS and also used GasTOPS’ technical information.  In short, they took virtually the whole of the business from GasTOPS and used it in their new venture.  In their first three years of business, nearly 80% of their business came from GasTOPS’ clients.  The Court ordered 10 years of lost profits against these four defendants and their new company.   The Court of Appeal had little difficulty upholding the finding that all four employees were fiduciaries, that 10 years was a reasonable time period for measuring damages and that the four defendants were jointly and severally liable.

The other decision issued by the Court of Appeal very different.  Mr. Brulé had been the acting CEO of Veolia ES Industrial Services Inc., a company that he had originally founded and then later sold.  He had an employment contract with Veolia that contained a non-competition provision.  The clause was poorly designed and did not wind up providing the protection that Veolia thought it had.  Mr. Brulé resigned from Veolia and provided notice of resignation as he was required to do.  On his way out the door, he made copies of company binders which contained various tenders and bids for public projects.  A few months later, he successfully bid on a project with the City of Ottawa with his new company.  Veolia sued for breach of fiduciary duty.

At trial, Veolia was awarded $465,000 plus costs against Mr. Brulé.  The Trial Court held that the poorly worded employment contract should be “blue-penciled” and fixed in a way that seemed to reflect the parties’ intention.  It ruled that Mr. Brulé was subject to a two year non-competition agreement and that he had breached it.  On appeal of this issue, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned this finding.  It referred to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in KRG Insurance v. Shafron and underscored the fact that Canadian courts will rarely “blue-pencil” non-competition agreements.  Since the agreement could not be “fixed,” Mr. Brulé had not breached any agreement.

The Trial Court also held that Mr. Brulé breached his fiduciary duties.  Since he took the binder and since he bid on the City of Ottawa project without telling his former employer, the Trial Court found him liable.  The Court of Appeal overturned both of these findings.  It held that the binders were filled with public documents and there was no proof that Mr. Brulé had taken or used anything that was confidential.  Moreover, it emphatically stated that he had no duty to his former employer to tell them that he was bidding on a project against them.  In short. unlike in the GasTOPS case, Mr. Brulé did not take a big chunk of his former employer’s business.  He entered into a bidding competition and won it fairly, without breaching any duties.  The Court of Appeal fully overturned the award of damages and ordered that Veolia pay Mr. Brulé’s legal costs.

Either or both of these cases may yet be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.  But they each provide different information about the nature of fiduciary duty claims and non-competition issues.  Where an employee or group of employees takes confidential information, uses it and competes unfairly against a former employee, significant damages may be awarded.  But where an employee, even a very senior employee, leaves and winds up competing against his or her former employer, that is not a breach of fiduciary duty on its own.  There must be some proof that the employee has misused confidential information that belonged to the former employer.

1.  Termination Clause:  In Canada, this is the number one item to watch for.  If  there is no termination clause, you will generally be entitled to common law “reasonable notice” on dismissal.  This can be in the range of one month per year of service and can often be much more than that.  Under Canadian law, employers can use termination clauses to limit the amount of compensation you might get in the event of a dismissal.  Employers can provide that they are paying as little as the minimum amounts under the applicable employment standards legislation.  With proper wording, they can exclude common law amounts.  If you sign a clause like this, it may be enforceable.  This could end up costing you thousands of dollars.  These clauses are often negotiable.  If the employer will not negotiate, this type of clause could be a deal-breaker for some people, especially those with other options.  Ideally, a Canadian employment contract should simply state that in the event of dismissal, you will be provided with notice and/or compensation in accordance with common law.  Beware of any reference to the Employment Standards Act in a termination clause.

2.  Post Employment Restrictions:  This is the second most important reason employers use written employment contracts in Canada.  If there are no post-employment restrictions, you are generally free to work wherever you like, with whomever you like after you leave a workplace.  Employers often include non-solicitation clauses (of clients or employees), non-competition clauses and confidentiality clauses in their agreements.  Some of these clauses may be enforceable.  They may also make it very difficult for you to find alternate employment later on, even if the enforceability of the clause is uncertain.  These clauses are often negotiable.  Be very wary of extensive non-solicitation, non-competition or other similar clauses.

3.  Probation:  Contrary to what most people believe, there is no “standard” or automatic probation term.  Although probation is referenced in the Ontario Employment Standards Act, for example, this type of clause is not automatic.  If you are leaving other employment to accept a position – and even if you are not, you may be able to get the employer to delete the probation clause.    You may also be able to get the employer to start your health and medical benefits immediately without a probationary period.

4. Compensation:  It goes without saying that the various components of your income should be set out clearly- including salary, bonus, car allowance, pension or RRSP contributions, stock options or share grants and any other amounts that have been discussed.  Employees can often negotiate a signing bonus, particularly if you found the position directly or if you are leaving other employment to accept this role.  If the terms of a plan (for example, a bonus plan or a commission plan) are vague or not provided, you should consider requesting further information or even some guarantees for the first year or two.  Vacation and sick days should also be specified.  Vacation time is often negotiable.

5.  Role and Responsibilities:  The position should be described in sufficient detail, ideally with a job description attached as an appendix, if appropriate. Watch for language in the employment contract that would permit the employer to change your position, job location, hours of work or other key employment terms with minimal or no notice.  These clauses may be enforceable and could alter your legal rights.

6.  Lay-Off:  Some employers include a clause that states that the employer can put its employees on a “lay-off” in the even of a work slowdown, without advance notice or compensation.  These clauses may be legally enforceable and may alter your common law rights.

7.   Entire Agreement Clause:  Many employment contracts in Canada contain an “entire agreement” clause.  This clause means that any promises that may have been made to you must be included in the employment contract or they will become worthless.  If the employer has said anything about future salary increases, bonus amounts, promotions, benefits, or other terms, make sure that these promises are included in the written employment contract.  Otherwise, these promises will become worthless.

8.  Jurisdiction:  Generally this is not an issue.  If you are working in Ontario, for example, you should expect that the employment contract will reference Ontario law and will confirm that Ontario courts have jurisdiction over any issues.  However, some employers do try to transfer the jurisdiction, especially if they think they will more likely to get an injunction in a non-competition case in another location (i.e. somewhere in the U.S….).  While these clauses may not necessarily stand up in court, they can create complications.  Employers may sometimes include mandatory arbitration clauses, which have the effect of ousting the jurisdiction of the courts.  These clauses should also be considered carefully.

Conclusion

In Canada, employment law is reasonably favourable to employees.  Many employment terms are “implied,” which means that they are deemed to be part of your employment contract even if they are not in writing.  Most employees would be best off with a simple offer letter confirming the start date, the job responsibilities and the salary and compensation arrangements.

Of course, the flip side is true for employers, who are generally much better off with a more detailed employment contract.  If you are provided with an extensive employment contract containing numerous terms that limit or affect your common law rights, this may be an ominous sign of things to come.  See how flexible the employer is about negotiating these terms.  Speak to current or past employees about how the workplace is actually run and managed.  In some cases, the position may seem like such a great opportunity that you are prepared to overlook all of the problematic terms of the employment contract.  Ultimately, that is a business decision that you have to make based on your personal circumstances.  But you should make that decision only once you are fully informed about the impact of these different contract clauses.

The plaintiff worked as a customer support agent from October 2005 to March 6, 2008, a total of about 2 1/2 years.  Six months after the plaintiff began his employment, he signed an employment agreement.  The agreement included a clause which provided for fifteen days’ notice in the event of dismissal.

The plantiff was dismissed and was provided with two weeks’ severance.  He did not accept this amount and sued for $70,000 in wrongful dismissal damages.

At trial, the plaintiff noted that he had not obtained legal advice at the time he signed the contract.  However, he apparently agreed at trial that the agreement was “valid and in force.”  (This is really a legal conclusion rather than a factual matter).   Instead of arguing that he was owed more notice – and that the employment agreement was not valid, the plaintiff alleged the defendant had dismissed him for improper reasons, relating to his record of offences.

The trial judge concluded that since the plaintiff was dismissed on a “without cause” basis, he was only entitled to the minimum amount provided for in the employment agreement.  The reason for his dismissal was held to be irrelevant.  The lawsuit was dismissed and the plaintiff was ordered to pay the defendant’s costs in the sum of $5,012.

The plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeal and represented himself once again.  The Court of Appeal upheld the employment contract and dismissed the case, ordering the plaintiff to pay another $3,500.

The striking aspect of this case is the arguments that do not appear to have been put before the trial judge or the Court of Appeal or considered by one of the two levels of court.

Firstly, the employment agreement  that the defendant relied upon was provided to the plaintiff six months after he commenced employment.  There is no suggestion in the trial decision that any new consideration was provided to the plaintiff.  Based on a number of cases that have previously been decided by the Ontario Court of Appeal, the employment agreement should have been thrown out for lack of consideration (See for example Hobbs v. TDI Canada Ltd.) Interestingly, one of the Court of Appeal judges who sat on the panel that decided Hobbs v. TDI Canada Ltd., Justice MacPherson, was on the panel in this case of Musoni v. Logitek Technology Ltd.  Yet there is no mention of any consideration argument.

Secondly, even if the employment agreement had been provided to the plaintiff in exchange for some new consideration, it contained a clause that provided for only 15 days notice.  If the plaintiff had been working for the defendant for three years, this 15 days would have been less than the minimum notice required under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (21 days rather than 15).  At four years, it would have been significantly less, no matter what type of calculation is used.  These types of clauses that will eventually amount to less than the minimum amount required by statutory provision have been held to be void by Canadian courts.  (See, for example Shore v. Ladner Downs, a decision of the B.C. Court of Appeal).

It seems likely that if this case had been argued properly, the plaintiff should have been entitled to between 3 and 6 months’ notice, based on his annual income of $47,000.  Instead, he wound up with 15 days’ notice and a bill for the defendant’s costs of more than $8,500.  The case is an illustration of a situation in which the courts will not come up with the proper arguments for the unrepresented plaintiff.  So the plaintiff is ultimately left with a brutal result and only himself to sue for professional negligence – for not having raised some key legal arguments that any competent employment lawyer would have put forward.

A final note: Given that the case was probably only worth three or four months’ compensation, the proper place for this case would have been Ontario Small Claims Court, which has a monetary limit of $25,000, rather than the Ontario Superior Court.  Ouch!

1.  Remain Calm and Professional

This is one of the hardest things for many people. That is quite understandable, particularly if the termination has been handled poorly or is a bad faith termination.  For many dismissed employees, it will simply be a short meeting with the boss and an HR representative, or perhaps, just your supervisor.  Often, these meetings are very short and little is said.  Perhaps you are not even provided with a reason for the dismissal other than “the company is making a change.”  In any case, it is rarely helpful to argue or debate the issue.  It is almost always an irreversible decision and you will now have to move forward in the best way possible.  You should avoid the urge to do anything rash or impulsive.  Nasty emails sent around to company personnel or clients are almost never helpful, although a short and sweet goodbye note may sometimes be appropriate, if acceptable to the employer.

2.  Review the Termination Letter But Don’t Sign

Dismissals in Canada will generally be “with cause” or “without cause.”  If you are being dismissed “with cause,” you may not be offered a severance package.  If you are offered one, it may be one that is greatly reduced as compared to what you might have been entitled to receive in a without cause situation.  If the dismissal is “for cause,” it may be helpful to try to ask questions at the dismissal meeting about the allegations that are being made, the basis for the allegations and other related questions.

If the dismissal is “without cause,”  you will almost certainly be provided with a severance package.  In most cases, the employer will ask you to sign a release or some other agreement accepting the package.  You should never sign this type of document immediately.  You may well be entitled to significantly more than you are being offered by the employer.  If the termination letter references an “employment contract” that you signed when you first started, you should ask for a copy of it if you do not have ready access to it.   The employment contract may well set out the employer’s severance obligations and you may or may not be able to challenge this type of contract.  If you can’t find it, you may want to get a copy from HR, especially if it is referenced in your termination letter.

Whether a dismissal is for “cause” or “without cause,” it can still be considered a wrongful dismissal if you have not been given full proper compensation.

3.  Avoid Publicizing Immediately and Help Yourself

Although it might be tempting to immediately announce your departure on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media, you should tread carefully.  It is usually not helpful to begin telling everyone immediately that you have been fired.  Consider contacting some close former colleagues or supervisors who may be prepared to provide you with a helpful reference or ideas about suitable job openings.  Consider some other contacts who may have ideas about the types of positions that would best suit you going forward.  Of course if there are people close to you, a spouse or partner, close friends, parents or others, it can be very helpful to share everything with these people, discuss your feelings and emotions and get support.  If you feel that your health has been affected, you should not hesitate to speak with your physician or, if appropriate, other health care providers such as a psychologist or psychotherapist.  Some people may find comfort in confiding in clergy, many of whom can be very empathetic.  Others may find it helpful to ramp up an exercise routine.  Whatever works best for you, take steps to keep yourself on a solid emotional footing.

4.  Meet With a Lawyer

Whether you have been dismissed for cause or without cause, this is still important.

If your dismissal is for cause, this may be something that you can challenge.  You may be entitled to significant compensation, even though the employer has claimed that it has “just cause.”  The law in Canada is quite favourable to employees.  It is very difficult for employers to succeed with a just cause defence, particularly if the defence is based solely on poor performance.

If your dismissal is “without cause,” you may well be entitled to significantly more than the employer has offered.  Have a look at what is included in the severance package.  There may be items missing such as bonus, benefits, outplacement or the severance may simply be too low.

Most employment lawyers will charge a consultation fee for this type of review.  The fee is tax deductible and often employers will pay it.  This advice may be quite valuable.  After a proper review, if you are advised that everything is in order and the package is reasonable, this may be money well spent.  Some lawyers offering a “free consultation” will avoid providing detailed advice and will try to get you to commit to providing a large deposit without really providing a proper assessment of what you should expect.  With a proper legal consultation, you should leave the meeting with a good sense of the likely range of improvement in your package if you proceed, the anticipated legal fees and an understanding of relevant legal issues.  You should not commit to anything other than a reasonable initial consultation fee for a first meeting with a lawyer.

If you had a non-competition or non-solicitation agreement in place with your former employer, this is also something that should be reviewed with legal counsel so that you can understand your rights and obligations going forward.

5.  Outplacement and a Resume

If your severance package includes outplacement assistance, you should verify whether or not it is being provided unconditionally.  If so, you should get in touch with the outplacement provider early on in the process.  Don’t hesitate to ask questions.  Will the meetings be confidential?  Will the outplacement provider be reporting back to the employer?  Does the outplacement provider have experience in your field?  If you are not satisfied with the answers, you should consider asking the employer to permit you to use a provider of your choice.  If the outplacement assistance is only being provided conditional on a signed release, you should discuss the best strategy with your legal counsel.

6.  Employment Insurance

In most cases, you should contact HRDC to file for Employment Insurance as soon as possible.  Even if you have been dismissed for misconduct or other “just cause,” you may still be entitled to EI.  Sometimes you may have to go through an appeal process to ensure your entitlement.  If you are being provided with severance, you may not receive any EI payments until two weeks after all of the severance payments have been paid.  Nevertheless, you should still register early.

7.  Health, Dental and Insurance

Your severance package may continue benefits for some period of time.  You should make sure that you and/or your family members, if applicable, are up to date with dental care, health prescriptions, eye glasses, and other items that may be covered by your extended dental plan.  If your life and/or disability insurance coverage are going to be terminated, you should consider getting quotes as quickly as possible.  In some cases, you may have 30 days to convert over your life insurance policy from a group policy to an individual policy.  This may be important if your medical tests are problematic.

8.  Be Forward Looking

Being dismissed is never easy.  This will usually involve a significant life change as you will now have to shift careers.  But most people go through this transition successfully.   You will need to do your best to stay positive, consider the types of roles that you envision yourself in and put together a personal transition plan.  You should make sure that your resume is professional, free of any errors, and eye catching.  When attending job interviews, you should remain positive and avoid bad mouthing your previous employer or boss.  You should consider dealing with the that fact that you were dismissed upfront and summarily.  Honesty will almost always be the best policy even though that does not mean telling potential employers about all of your weaknesses.

9.  Keep Track of Efforts

It will be helpful and often legally required for you to track your job search efforts.  Put together a spread sheet listing all activities. This should include formal and informal contacts.  Include lunch meetings, phone calls and discussions with friends, colleagues and former co-workers.  Track dates, people contacted, positions applied for, interviews and outcomes.  Keep this file up to date.  It may be important in proving “mitigation” if your severance entitlement has not been resolved quickly.  Or it may be required for EI purposes.  It will also be a useful part of tracking your personal progress.

10.  Carefully Consider any New Contract

When you have been offered a new position, you may well be given an offer letter or employment contract.  Don’t assume that the contact is a standard form or that it is non-negotiable even though you may really want to take the position and move on.  The proposed employment contract may limit or reduce your legal rights significantly.  Make sure you understand all of its terms properly.  You might consider having it reviewed by an employment lawyer.

These are some of the key points to consider. Certainly there are many career transition books that are quite helpful.  People often recommend What Color is Your Parachute?  Another favourite, on a lighter note, is Dr. Suess’ “Oh The Places You’ll Go.”  

There are also numerous job search websites and resources of every kind available on the internet.  Brush up your linked in profile with details of your work, references and endorsements.  Try to remain positive.  For many people, a dismissal may well lead to opportunities or new situations that might even be better for you that the role you have just left.

The case had an unfortunate twist.  The courier had worked as an employee with the company for ten years.  But after that, he had become an “independent contractor” and worked in that capacity for three years before this incident occurred.  He had signed an independent contractor agreement that provided for thirty days’ notice of any dismissal (without cause).

When the courier was wrongfully dismissed, he sued for breach of contract but he did not sue for wrongful dismissal.  He did not claim that he was really an “employee,” nor did he directly challenge the independent contractor agreement, although he claimed other damages flowing from breach of contract.  If the courier had been able to challenge the contract and prove “wrongful dismissal,” he might have been awarded a year’s pay or more.

However, he only alleged “breach of contract.”  As a result, the courier put himself in a situation where if were to win his lawsuit, he would win thirty days’ pay, as required under his contract.  If he were to lose, he would get nothing.

At trial, the lower court judge held that the package of pot, that had been sent to the courier from his brother in Vancouver, was “clear evidence of illegal or criminal conduct” and this would justify termination, even though no criminal charges were ever laid.

The Court of Appeal disagreed.  It overturned this finding and ruled that there was no clear evidence that the courier himself had engaged in any criminal or other misconduct.  Just because a family member delivers a package of illegal drugs to a person’s workplace, this does not mean that the person has engaged in any improper activity..or at least there is no clear evidence of such misconduct.

However, the Court of Appeal went on to award damages of only thirty days’ compensation, which amounted to the grand total of $2,973.70.   This was really a pyrrhic victory for the plaintiff.  He lost his courier job and got only 30 days’ compensation after 13 years of work.  He also lost the pot, which may well have been worth close to the amount of the judgment.  And we haven’t even mentioned legal fees…

In other posts, I have looked at the types of clauses that can be used in employment contracts and what they really mean.  You can find the most recent discussion here.

But I wanted to consider some more practical points.  Some might seem obvious.  But people holding a new job offer in hand don’t always think of everything that should be considered.  While you may be anxious to sign the employment contract and start the new job, especially if you have been out of work for some period of time, you really do need to look at the contact closely.  Not all of the terms are written in stone.

What items can be negotiated?

1. Salary.  Well, of course this is not really a legal point.  But most people realize that salary is negotiable.  So I often have employees tell me that they negotiated up the salary level of a new position – but ignored everything else in the contract.  Don’t assume that the salary is fixed.  There may well be room to improve it.  Most of the time, it can’t hurt to try.

2. Vacation and Bonus.  In a sense, these benefits go hand in hand with salary.  They are tangible items that an employer might agree to increase.  Often, both items are subject to a grid or a plan.  But I regularly see employers making agreements to increase vacation time at the request of a new hire – especially from two to three weeks or from three to four.

3. Severance.  This is crucial.  Even though it might seem like the last thing on the mind of someone who is about to be hired, it can be incredibly significant.  Some employers will use clauses that drastically limit the amount of potential severance to be paid on a dismissal.  Any clauses that say “employment standards legislation” or something similar should be questioned and considered.  They might even be deal breaking clauses.  As a result, employers will often negotiate these clauses.  If they will not, you should get proper legal advice so that you understand the implications of signing away such important and monetarily valuable rights.

4. Non-Competition Agreements: People generally realize that these clauses are significant, even if they have not had legal advice.  But I often hear employees telling me that a friend or family member told them not to worry because these clauses are rarely enforced and may not even be enforceable.  While that advice might be true sometimes, it is not always the case.  Signing a non-competition agreement – or even a “non-solicitation” agreement can greatly impact your future opportunities after leaving this new employer.  These clauses are also often negotiable, particularly the proposed time period of the restrictions.

5. Probation and Benefits Clauses.  Believe it or not, these too are negotiable items.  If an employee is being recruited from another position, the potential employer may agree to waive a probationary period and/or start benefits right away.  Sometimes a signing bonus can even be negotiated.

These are just a few of the points to consider.  Competent legal counsel can often point out a number of different clauses in a proposed employment contract that are problematic or that should be considered very carefully.  It may well be much cheaper, in the long run, to go through an employment contract review process at the outset than a legal battle at the end of a relationship.  It is usually far worse to find out, after being dismissed, that a signed employment agreement has now left you with below-market severance, enforceable post-employment restriction and no real legal alternatives.

If the employer is reasonable and is genuinely interested in treating its employees fairly, it should be prepared to negotiate reasonable provisions in all of these areas and maybe some others as well.

Surprisingly, this was not the conclusion of the Ontario Court of Appeal in a recent decision.  In Nagribianko v. Select Wine Merchants Ltd., the Court reviewed a case that had been to the Ontario Small Claims Court and the Divisional Court.  The employee had signed a contract that referenced a six month probationary period.  But the contract does not appear to have specified a payment that the employer was required to provide if dismissed after the first three months.  This should have made the contract null and void in accordance with the Supreme Court of Canada’s powerful decision in Machtinger v. HOJ Industries Ltd. [1992] 1 S.C.R. 986.

The employee had worked for the employer for just less than six months.  He was dismissed on a without cause basis.  He sued for damages and was awarded four months’ compensation in the Ontario Small Claims Court.  The judge ruled that he had been induced to join the employer and that the clause did not effectively oust the employee’s common law entitlement.  This seems consistent with most of the case law.

The Ontario Divisional Court reversed the decision and held that the trial judge had failed to give effect to the probationary language.  The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the Divisional Court’s decision and held that the term “probation” was not ambiguous. It ruled that “probationary status enables an employee to be terminated without notice during the probationary period if the employer makes a good faith determination that the employee is unsuitable for permanent employment, and provided the probationary employee was given a fair and reasonable opportunity to demonstrate their ability.”

The Appeal Court went on to conclude that the employer could not contract out of the minimum standards required by the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 and that therefore the employee was entitled to one weeks’ pay, which the employee received, even though this one week’s pay was apparently not specified in the contract.

This analysis all would have been correct if the contract had specifically stated that the employee could be dismissed after three months but before six months with the payment of one week’s pay and the continuation of one week’s benefits.  However, if the contract did not say that specifically, it should have been viewed as a contract that would violate the common law case law as set out in Machtinger v. HOJ.  The contract appeared to specify that the employee could be dismissed at any time during the six months as a probationary employee with no notice or payment.  The fact that the employer paid the minimum one week’s compensation required by the ESA 2000 ought not to have fixed a poorly drafted contract.

Here, in contrast to the Brake v. PJ-M2R Restaurant Inc. that I looked at last week, the Ontario Court of Appeal weighed in heavily on the side of employers and was quite unsympathetic to what should have been a reasonable employee claim.  The decision is good news for Ontario employers, even those with poorly drafted contracts, who may now find it easier and cheaper to dismiss probationary employees.  The decision also demonstrates, as I indicated previously, that the outcome of a case at the Ontario Court of Appeal may well depend on the particular panel that is hearing the decision.  In this case, justices LaForme, Hourigan and Paciocco have issued a ruling that strongly favours employers and provides quite the contrast with the previous decision that I examined in Brake v. PJ-M2R Restaurant Inc., which went the other way.

Other recent Ontario Court of Appeal decisions have also gone in different directions and I will review two or three more of them in coming blogs.  The most significant take-away is probably a strong measure of uncertainty, which underscores the risks inherent in civil ligation and, particularly, in employment law cases. Contact us today!